Western Lake Erie Limnology Laboratory

Ecolab: Temporal Resolution of the Maumee River Plume

In the spring of 2006, researchers from the Lake Erie Center and NOAA’s Great Lakes
Environmental Research Laboratory will be testing the
feasibility of using an automated in situ nutrient analyzer to produce a continuous, high-resolution characterization of the
Maumee River
plume. The sampling frequency and real-time data reporting abilities of these recently-developed
devices far outpace traditional ship and
laboratory-based nutrient monitoring procedures. This capability is needed in order
to understand river influences, to predict algal blooms in
this highly variable region of the lake, and for improved physical and nutrient coupled
modeling of Lake Erie as a whole. Deployment in Maumee
Bay of a device equipped to monitor phosphate and nitrate will provide the following
benefits, all of which are enhanced by the ability to retrieve
data in real-time:

Identification of either Maumee River or Detroit River influence in Maumee Bay at
any point in time.